promotions

[mrp]

I don't use Drill, barrage, woodsman, hill defense or guerrilla
open country units get
strength bonuses and unit bonuses
city defenders get city defense then later get open country
city attackers get the cit attack promote then later get open country bonuses
transports get 1 withdraw and and others go to movement increase

[Chemical Ollie]

I usually start wars very early by snatching a worker from the nearest civ, instead of building it myself. Then I use warriors and archers to contain the enemy inside his capital until I have units strong enough to break the city defenses. Hills defense and/or woodsman are great to give to the units I use to contain the enemy, as he normally tries to break free once in a while.

Hills defence and woodsman are also useful later in the game, when I build a Maginot line at the border to prevent sneak attacks.

[LzPrst]

first strike is really really really good. especially if you have a few of them. even more if you're playing a protective civ.

unit-type counters are also very valuable. an axeman with an additional bonus vs melee units is very good. as is often a swordsman with a vs archery upgrade, just to get rid of them. and so on. a spearman with extra bonus against mounted is also good. keep one of each of those in each stack and you're fairly safe from any attack (early on, it changes with time obviously)

woodsman is great for exploration, as is guerilla. it is also good when you want to fortify inside enemy territory, for example holding a forested hill with a few riflemen. they will not easily be dislodged.

[Fleme]

I usually go with Combat, since I like to have a wellrounded army suited for any situation. However, if I happen to get a natural chokepoint on a hill, I will naturally garrison Guerilla-promoted units there.

For axes, maces and crossbows I get the extra +25% against melee units and do similarly with other units with specialization (spears and pikes get +25% against cav) and for my infantries and onward I promote Pinch since most of the enemy units are Gunpowder anyways, so it's good. March would be a really good promotion but I find myself skipping it quite often. I often find myself running Nationalism for a brief period in any given game and crossing my fingers for the event that gives all your gunpowder units March. This of course is a non-issue come Mech Infs.

Each army has one or two medic-woodsmen, since incidentally Woodsman 3 is a really really good promotion. +15% extra healing and first strikes to boot, thank you. My great medic will strive to get both Woodsman 3 and Medic 3.

So yea, I tend to have a few specialized units to counter corresponding enemy units while the bulk of my army will consist of units promoted to either CR or combat depending on their purpose. My siege always has the bombardment/collateral damage bonuses. Cavalries get both extra withdrawal chances and afterwards Combat. I rarely pick extra First Strikes unless I'm playing a civ who has a UU that has natural first strikes such as the Ethiopians. You get Drill 4 Oromos without any trouble and those guys can really hold their own.

[joncnunn]

Ever since playing Ethopia, I've become a big fan of the Drill promotion, at least for unit types unable to get City Raider.

[LzPrst]

as mentioned, with protective civs and such drill really helps. (churchill's redcoats = )

[Fleme]

The thing about Drill is that I'm not a 100% sure of how it works and how good it is when compared to Combat. Is there a place where I can see comparisons or is running tests with the worldbuilder the only place to go? (And I'm not going to do that, no sir!)

[Hauptman]

USE MARCH MORE! Did I say that loud enough?

By far my favorite first promotions. Force multiplication as they can attack and move every turn never needing to stop and heal (unless they get real beat up.)

In my "fun with tokagawa" thread you will notice my march promoted units ae in fact the BEST promoted units in my stack. The extra attacks they can make just ADD up FAST for even more promotions.

[Jaybe]

USE MARCH MORE!

Is that better?

Actually, that's a very good point (especially for warlorded units).

[Hauptman]

I will never forget the game I discovered how great march was. Back in CIV vanilla, I would generally promote ONE single unit with medic per stack. Figured thats all I needed. Well one pangea game I just happened to be blocked in by 'friendly' civs. But i was conquering outwards. Once I opened a whole in my friends, my 'enemies' where then able to come at me. I faced an almost endless supply of units from one civ after another. Apperantly they where waiting JUST for me. I had 1 or 2 medics in my army and a bunch of other general promotions.

When the fighting was done. My units had killed close to 200 enemy units. I had lost tons, rebuilt many, But those 2 medics happened to get march and both where alive and both had 40+ xp. whereas the specialized units had 15 - 20.

[dregor]

In my current game I had an event that gave march to all gunpowder units. I'm still cleaning up the puddle of drool

[wardhali]

can someone please explain the combat differences and effects of the first strikes vs straight percentage modifiers?

[realpolitic]

When fighting in the woods, a couple of woodsman are helpful, even at woodsman I. at woodsman II, you get twice the speed, which is nice for a fsurprise attack, if the terrain merits it. Woodsman III has a 5l0% withdrawl chance. Guerilla also has its merits, but both are useful only in unusual situations.

[Hauptman]

Originally posted by wardhali
can someone please explain the combat differences and effects of the first strikes vs straight percentage modifiers?

First strike is better vs weaker units where as combat% would be better vs evenly matched units.

First strikes are extra attacks that have no chance of recieving damage. They can however fail to win the battles and do no damage for the first strikes. But vs a weaker unit they are more likely to win, and with enough first strikes (5-8 for samurai) its possible to kill a weaker unit with first strikes and never have a chance of getting hurt.